Honestly, figuring
out the budget is not everybodyís cup of tea. Different people look at the same
budget differently. Alternatively, the same people look at it in different ways
at different occasions.

Naturally, the budget is primarily looked at from
class angle. That is, everyone first thinks of how it is going to affect his or
her class of people, those in the same income bracket, business, profession,
even caste and community.

We have an
interesting example in the corporate sectorís reaction to the Union Budget
2007-2008. Initially, quite a few of the leading lights of India Inc. thought
that the budget was "disappointing" and lacklustre. At least that is what they
told TV anchors soon after the budget presentation.

However, when some of them came face-to-face with
Finance Minister P. Chidambram at a meeting in New Delhi, he asked them a few
pointed questions, which showed that they found the budget excellent. They even
said so collectively.

Chidambram told the
industrialists: "Those who donít agree with the following provisions in the
budget please raise your hands." He then proceeded on with those provisions:
creation of one lakh jobs for the physically challenged, scholarships for one
lakh children and allocation of more money to combat HIV/AIDS.

Nobody raised his hands to oppose these provisions.
Then he took a dramatic turn and asked them to raise their hands if they opposed
the following provisions: funding for the completion of polio vaccination
programme by December 2007, the appointment of two lakh teachers next year, the
creation of half a million class rooms in 2008. Nobody raised his hands to
oppose the provisions. And everybody said it was a good budget.

A similar conundrum marks the budget allocation for
minorities. A day before the budget a major newspaper reported that Chidambram
has trebled the budget allocation for minority affairs ministry, compared to
last yearís provision, which now stood at Rs 500 crore.

But the figures do
not seem to tally with actual allocations. In any case itís pittance compared to
a provision of Rs 3,271 crore for schemes benefitting only SC/ST communities,
besides Rs 17,691 crore for schemes in which 20 percent of the beneficiaries are
from SC/ST background. Then, there is another Rs 790 crore in scholarship for
SC/ST children.

The budget envisages
a special plan for districts with high concentration of minorities. However,
there is no specific identification of those districts, which leads some to
complain that it is good enough to elicit charges of "minority appeasement', but
not good enough to make any difference as far as minority lives are concerned.

IOS Current Affairs
asked Dr Ausaf Ahmad, an economist till recently associated with Islamic
Development Bank in Jeddah, to elucidate. Dr Ahmad has been a keen watcher of
the Indian economic scene. [See: Economistís Perspective]g